Cliff collapse shows it’s best to heed nature’s warnings

Published 12:05 am, Sunday, March 29, 2015

A rockslide at Arch Rock within Point Reyes National Seashore killed one hiker and severely injured another last weekend.

A rockslide at Arch Rock within Point Reyes National Seashore killed one hiker and severely injured another last weekend.

Photo: Associated Press

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A fissure atop Arch Rock at Point Reyes National Seashore is a warning sign along the coast in West Marin.

A fissure atop Arch Rock at Point Reyes National Seashore is a warning sign along the coast in West Marin.

Photo: Associated Press

Cliff collapse shows it’s best to heed nature’s warnings

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The odds of being born, according to one legend, are the same as if you were to throw a life ring on the open ocean, and at that exact moment, a blind sea tortoise poked its head through the ring.

The odds of dying, on the other hand, are 100 percent.

Each day in between, since it’s a miracle you’re alive in the first place, should be treated as a blessing. Considering the events of last weekend — the catastrophe at Point Reyes and the arrival of spring — it might be a good idea to dump your “should list” and do what sets you free to travel, explore, hike, bike, fish, camp, boat or stalk and photograph wildlife.

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It’s been a week since the landslide at Point Reyes National Seashore, an event that shocked thousands who have stood at the spot where the earth gave way. It killed one hiker and injured another, and the response of many I know is, “It could have been me. It could have been you.”

The location is one of the most popular bluff-top lookouts on the Pacific Coast. The trail to get there, the Bear Valley Trail to the overlook of Arch Rock, gets such heavy use that much of it resembles a small road. It’s about 4 miles one way, long enough to give you a feeling of separation from mass civilization, easy enough to complete in a few hours.

The trail leads to this towering outcrop with a wide, bare top and a nearly vertical cliff that plunges about 100 feet to crashing breakers. Nearby are Arch Rock, Miller’s Point and a variety of sculptured inshore rock formations that resemble stacks, pinnacles and crags.

One spring day I, like so many others, sat on the edge of the cliff there and had a trail lunch, took in the sights. And then to our surprise, a mother gray whale with a calf emerged and cavorted in the shallows within 100 yards.

The cliff could have sheared off right then and killed about 30 of us. But it didn’t.

About 6 p.m. on March 21, though, it did. A fissure at the neck of the bluff, deep enough to prompt rangers to post warnings and closure signs just before the weekend, caused a section to collapse 70 feet into a pile of rubble.

At parks across America, people tend to ignore warning signs, even if the danger is imminent, like at the brink of a waterfall, or illusory, like the typical half dozen warnings at trailheads at many Bay Area parks.

In Yosemite National Park, I’ve seen young people wade in the pool above 317-foot Vernal Fall, not only ignoring the signs, but the fact that in the past 10 years alone, more than a dozen people have slipped and been carried with the current over the brink to their deaths.

It’s like this everywhere. On the Nepali Coast of Kauai, there’s a hand-carved sign, all in capital letters, at the entrance of a Hanakapiai beach that says: “Do not go near the water. Unseen currents have killed...” and then with a line for each fatality, the deaths added up to 82 the last time I counted, in fall 2013 (another was added last fall).

There are so many warning signs when there is no imminent danger that many understand why several hundred people ignored the warnings at Point Reyes and ventured out to the bluff at Arch Rock.

But then, even if you do everything right, follow every rule, your number can come up. I used up my nine lives long ago; I know that. It’s a miracle I’m around.

The reality is that it is a miracle, no matter what your age, that you are around, too. Just remember the story about the blind tortoise.

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